The Devils have gotten a couple of days to catch their breath after Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Los Angeles Kings and before tonight’s Game 2, but principal owner Jeff Vanderbeek was busy appearing on the “Game On” sports business talk show with Darren Rovell that aired Friday night on NBC Sports Network.

“I plan on being the owner for a long time,” Vanderbeek said in response to a question about the team’s financial distress.

Many fans know of Vanderbeek’s background on Wall Street as a former Lehman Brothers executive, but fewer know that he also has roots as a hockey dad, taking his son to practices on weekends at the same sort of ungodly hours that any hockey parent knows too well.

The Devils have an $80 million loan that was due to be repaid last fall, but the payments were postponed until the end of the NHL season. That deadline was believed to be July 1, but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said this week that the team had a bit more time than that.

“The New Jersey situation as we understand it at its most up to date point is that the club, Jeff Vanderbeek, is working on both refinancing the debt on the club and an equity raise and he appears to be fairly confident that he can pull this off in due course in the next few weeks,” Bettman said. “Since I’ve been in touch with the banks on a regular basis, we seem to be on track.”

Bettman told my Record colleague Tom Gulitti that“equity raise” means “either a new partner, or Jeff could put some more money in.”

“We’re involved with very constructive conversations with the banks and equity partners,” Vanderbeek told Rovell. “That’s really all I’m going to say about it while the Stanley Cup is going on. This is really about the Kings, about the Devils, about the Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey and what a great year the NHL has had this year.”

Vanderbeek told Rovell that the Devils added 2,000 season ticketholders before this season, and already have 1,500 more for 2012-13. The renewal rate has climbed from 84 percent last year to 95 percent this year – and of course that figures to tick slightly higher once deadlines hit.

Have the Devils made enough extra money in the playoffs to cover that $80 million loan? No. Have they made half that much? Probably, depending on how one defines “new revenues.”

fyi, cheapest tix to get in tonight on stubhub as of 11 am was $210. That should drop a little in a couple of hours.